Navigating the Chronic Wellness Balance: Trusting Your Body in the Face of Its Unpredictability
How do you trust what can be unreliable?
The impact of chronic illness is not just limited to a medical diagnosis - it can affect all areas of your life. The term “chronic” becomes a part of our vocabulary, and yet, it resists an easy integration into our life.
But, because we are living with a condition that is by definition not going away anytime soon, it is important to find a balance with chronic illness if we want to optimize our quality of life.
Finding that balance can be a challenging tightrope walk. We strive to live well - not just despite our conditions - but, alongside them, fully and unapologetically. Part of that balancing act is navigating the paradox of trusting your body’s signals when you may have lost trust in your body’s reliability.
Listening To Your Body’s Signals
An important step in this balancing act is learning the language of your body—truly understanding its unique signals. For some, they speak in gentle nudges, easily overlooked on a busy day. For others, they may feel like a bit of a roar that can stop day-to-day life in its tracks.
Understanding these signals is not merely about preserving your physical health; it's ensuring your emotional and mental well-being. When you truly listen, you honor your body's wisdom. You acknowledge its resilience and its vulnerabilities. You recognize how much your body is going through. It can be difficult to listen to these signals and to confront the emotions that sometimes arise when we hear what we would rather not. Personally, I find it incredibly frustrating. But there is power in this knowledge - despite the fears and frustrations.
The Limiting Nature of Unpredictability
Yet, there's a tension that presents itself; an unwelcome guest in our desire for an easy road ahead - the unpredictability of our symptoms. We know to expect symptoms, but their unpredictability on timing and severity can be a challenge - especially when you have made other plans. This unpredictability can be as paralyzing as the symptoms themselves.
How do we plan, act or even hope in the face of such uncertainty?
When you are navigating the tension between wanting to trust your body’s signals while experiencing the frustration of symptom unpredictability, I invite you to consider these strategies.
4 Crucial Strategies To Navigating The Balance Between Trusting Your Body In The Face Of Its Unpredictability
One - Accept the Practicalities of Chronic Illness
Acceptance is not submission; it’s acknowledgement. To accept the practical parameters of a chronic condition is to make peace with the reality of it. It doesn’t mean you need to like it. But, acceptance of the practical realities of your chronic condition allows you to live your life in a way that works for you as you are now.
Accepting the practicalities of chronic illness entails seeing it as a part of your life and trying to work with it (whether your condition is permanent or for the time being). Once this happens, you can redirect your energy from denial and battle to realistic coexistence. This acceptance can guide your choices so that you can find your way to nurturing yourself and improving your well-being.
For more reading on accepting the practicalities of chronic illness, check out THIS blog post.
TWO - respect Your symptom cycle
Many chronic illnesses have a rhythm, a pattern to their unpredictability that only becomes a cycle through attentive observation. While the cycle might be a bit erratic, it can be helpful to recognize what your body needs during certain points in the cycle.
Noticing and respecting your symptom cycle is not about resignation, but respect for the ebb and flow of what your body needs. Then, you can create and alter your routine in a way that accommodates your body’s needs rather than fights them. This approach demands flexibility during the inevitable downturns. This respect for the cycle is a recognition of the body's need for rest and recovery.
For a deeper discussion of respecting your symptom cycle read THIS blog post.
three- engage in ruthless prioritization
Chronic illness often comes with the choices inherent in working with a limited body budget. Each commitment is weighed in the balance of energy. Each choice of where to spend your time and energy could mean that you have less to spend elsewhere. To contend with this, listening to your body’s signals and prioritizing what is best for you becomes more than a strategy—it is a Herculean act of self-advocacy.
The internal and external pressures to spend your body budget can conflict with your imperative to prioritize your health. Navigating these choices requires a ruthlessness that is not cruel, but essential to fostering your wellness. The upside is that when we lean into what feels right to us as individuals, we move ourselves towards a life that nurtures us, and ultimately uplifts us, even when those choices are hard.
Read more about ruthless prioritization HERE.
four - find self-compassion
Once you are able to accept the inherent realities of living with chronic illness, it is important to give yourself compassion for what you are going through.
There is just no easy way to live with chronic illness, which is why it is important to give yourself space to feel the feelings AND to give yourself enough time to rest, care for yourself and cope with your symptoms. Self-care is not a sign of weakness. It is a demonstration of an empowered choice to show yourself kindness and compassion.
And, when you realize that your body is not the enemy, more opportunities to care for yourself arise. By treating your body kindly and listening to its signals, you can gain more clarity about your needs. Honoring those signals includes recognizing your current capabilities without judgment and understanding that, though your body may be letting you down right now, it is the body that you have. So, nurture it! Care for it!
For related reading, check out these blog posts on Thriving Mindset and Self-Compassion.
For more support
In finding your thriving mindset, subscribe to my newsletter to receive instant access to the FREE Chronically Well Mindset program in the Chronically Well App!
My Personal Path To Trusting My Body
When I finally started to listen to my body, I felt a big shift in both my mindset and my health. Prior to this shift, I was pushing myself too hard in all aspects of my life. I kept trying to function as if I was not living with chronic illness. And, the result was exhaustion, illness and endless frustration. On repeat.
When I finally started to listen to signals to rest and take things down a notch, my health and well-being began to shift for the better. I started to get sick less frequently and less severely. I was happier, too. I finally had some energy to start exploring lifestyle changes that might help my underlying wellness. I slowly moved away from denial and frustration towards acceptance, empowerment and a better quality of life.
This is not to say that we can magically cure ourselves by simply listening to our body. But, when you stop battling yourself, you create energy and space in your life to focus on what you can do to improve your situation. This will lead you to finding your unique way to thrive with chronic illness.
Crafting Your Chronically Well Future
The call to action is not just to understand these concepts but to live them, to embed them into the fabric of your life. It is to recognize that chronic wellness is not a destination, but a dynamic, evolving state that requires constant recalibration. My invitation to you is not just to read, but to integrate. Explore the strategies I offer, and consider joining me in a personal exploration of your chronic wellness balance.
In closing, the narrative of chronic wellness is not one of limitation, but liberation. It is a call to align with the present, to guide the future, and to live fully despite—even in the very face of—illness.
To continue exploring this delicate balance and receive encouragement tailored for your struggles and goals, subscribe to my newsletter for regular insights and to gain access to my free Chronically Well Mindset program. If you're ready to take your chronic wellness to the next level and could benefit from expert guidance, consider booking an exploratory call to learn about working with me through THRIVE or Chronically Well. It's time to move from merely surviving to truly thriving.
What is Chronic Wellness?
Chronic Wellness is finding a balance in your life that allows you to manage your day-to-day with chronic illness while working towards and maintaining hope for future healing.
This entails some radical acceptance of the realities of the practicalities of your situation - and, your parameters. It also entails not giving up on yourself or your body. It requires finding the balance that works for YOU.
What might shift in your life if you found a better balance with chronic illness?
Does this resonate?Please share this post with friends! Click the menu on the right to share on social media.
